Elemental Friends and Psycho Boyfriends
by CrazyNutSquirrel
Summary: A sort of companion story to Dragongirl224's "The Love of the Earth" story. Depending on which you read first, the other is a behind the scenes story. This one deals with Skullette and Tuffnut. Rated T for no particular reason.
1. Toby the Gronkle and other problems

_Skullette. That was all that ever mattered, and all that ever will matter._ Her fantasizing about what a future boyfriend might think about her was interrupted by banging on the door. "Skullie! You've gotta come out for the egg choosing!"

"Do I need a dragon? What if I get a Gronkle? They're nuisances and you can't sit on them properly."

"Shh, you'll hurt Toby's feelings!"

"Toby couldn't care less, he thinks worse about me." Skullette stalked out of her house, a mutual glaring contest going between her and the Gronkle that her father seemed to love so much more than her.

They joined the crowd heading towards the nesting cliffs, their bodies being jostled as eager young Vikings tried to push to the front. Skullette shoved the helmet of one of the eager children down onto his head then pushed him into his brother. Chuckling maliciously, she jogged to catch up to her father.

The children had never seen dragon eggs before, so they were supposed to just randomly choose one and hope for the best. Hiccup would be there with his girlfriend Astrid. Even though Skullette liked being able to get a full nights sleep, she sort of wished Hiccup hadn't figured out that the dragons weren't necessarily born malicious. Well, unless you counted what they were calling the Royal Dragon. Hiccup, who was in charge of all dragon related matters, gestured to her to come up. Stoick was smiling on the sidelines with his Monstrous Nightmare resting its head on his shoulder.

She nervously climbed up to him and looked at the eggs. "I really don't want a Gronkle," she said, pulling at her auburn hair anxiously.

"I assure you that there is very little chance of that," said Hiccup, smiling reassuringly. There were round balls of what looked like granite, softly glowing egg shaped things, tiny almost translucent eggs (those were obviously Terrible Terrors). There were striped ones of varying colours, and green eggs with a single red stripe seemingly splitting them in half. A slight tremor made everyone stumble, and Skullette put her hand out.

Instead of connecting with stone, it connected with a smooth, scaly surface. As soon as her hand connected, she felt it cracking. She stepped back, not noticing that the charcoal drawing of a skull and crossbones that she'd made on the palm of her hand was now permanently on it. The egg shattered, a brief burst of purple revealing other black eggs. Tiny and incredibly large blue eyes peered at her from their fallen position on the floor.

The hatchling pushed itself up, fell over, and tried about four more times before it succeeded in remaining upright. Skullette's hands flew to her mouth. "You've got a Night Fury, just like me," said Hiccup.

"What will you name it?" asked Astrid.

"Him," said Skullette. "He's a boy. And his name is Andraemon." She knelt and held her hands out. Stumbling, the newly christened Andraemon stumbled over to her hands and she lifted him up into the sunlight. His scales were a bottleneck green, and one of his legs was a little stunted.

Her father looked slightly disappointed, but smiled encouragingly. She smiled back and blinked as Andraemon wriggled until he could stand in her arms and rub his head under her chin. Hiccup gestured to the next child as she carefully climbed down, sticking Andraemon inside her shirt. He poked his head out the top and looked around at everyone inquisitively.

Her father put a hand on her shoulder and steered her through the crowd, accepting congratulations for her as he went. When they got back, Toby looked at Andrae and growled, to which Andrae replied with a tiny fireball. While Skullette giggled, her father sent her inside and threatened to put a muzzle on Andrae if that scenario repeated. "Yes Dad," she said sullenly. "Come on Andrae, I'll show you my room then take you to my secret place. Just you and me." She paused on the stairs and sighed. "We'll have to stay there for awhile, Toby is out to get you and I'm not going to risk your head being bitten off like my best friend's Terrible Terror." Andrae whined, looking at her concernedly. "It's okay, I'll never let that happen to you."

Andrae twirled around on the floor as Skullette lifted the last of the supplies into the cave. "Home sweet home for the next while," She said, grunting as she lifted a basket of fish and carried it into a corner. She lifted one out and looked at Andrae, who was sitting and wagging his tail. "Yes, little charmer, this is for you. However, you can't deal with bones yet." She took a sizable bite and started chewing as Andrae whined at her, pacing around her feet.

She spat the wad of chewed fish into her hand and sat cross-legged on the floor, lifting him into her lap and giving him access to the food. He growled happily and started inhaling it. After a couple of portions, he was full and fell asleep on top of the fire she had set up. Sighing, she made another one and cooked what was left of the fish for herself. "Goodnight Andrae," she murmured, then kissed him on the head and fell asleep in a cocoon of blankets.

Something nudged her the next morning, continuing to do so until she was out of her cocoon. "Who...?" She trailed off as she stared at the dragon in front of her. He was the size of a sheep, instead of a Terrible Terror. "Andraemon?" He nodded enthusiastically and rubbed his head against her arm. "Nice to see you too. I've gotta sneak back and watch the lessons about dragon care. I'll be back soon, so you just stay hidden." She grabbed a dagger, clenched it in her teeth, and descended as Andrae watched.

When she reached the bottom, she waved to him and darted off. Andrae rumbled uneasily and retreated into the cave, hiding himself in the shadows. While he did this, Skullette was using scurrying and flinching to see if there was anyone else around and to keep herself safe. Well, undetected was a better word choice, seeing as she wasn't in any danger other than the danger of discovery.

Hearing wings, she ducked and scurried under some fallen logs. Her father flew overhead on his Gronkle. "Come on Toby! We have to find Skullette and Andraemon before something happens to them." She quietly prayed that they wouldn't find the cave before sneaking off again towards the village. When she reached the village, she looked for a way to get to the arena. That's where all lessons took place, and the path to it was brightly lit.

Spotting some kids carrying baskets of food to the arena, she smiled and went to grab one. With her height, she'd be mistaken for one of the kids who already had a dragon, and the Terrible Terrors loved attention, so she could pretend one of them was hers. Astrid came and told them to make sure that they didn't put eels in with the other fish ever, before going off with her Nadder to hunt.

The kids enthusiastically talked about their dragon flight lessons with Hiccup, and their dragon-back fighting lessons with Snotlout... Or the ones that used to be with Snotlout. Gobber had had to temporarily replace him because of flares in temper. Skullette watched the children in the ring, their dragons beside them. Oddly enough, none of them seemed to have had the sudden growth spurt that Andrae had.

After ten minutes, the kids started fidgeting. At that time, Astrid and her Nadder landed with something. "That, kids, is a Viking that crossed me." The kids started screaming. "I'm kidding!" They breathed sighs of relief... "But no, seriously." ... and they started screaming again. When the lesson actually took place, Astrid started explaining that you were basically your dragon's parent, so if they couldn't deal with bones in food, you had to remove them. Of course, for certain dragons like the Zippleback and Night Fury, they needed their food to be chewed for them until they grew teeth. The other dragons had gums that were tough enough to chew foods like fish on their own.

She also explained that there is no better hunter than a dragon. Gronkles were best with creatures that stayed close to the ground. Rabbits, deer, and other creatures like that. Nadders could go after those, and birds as well. Zipplebacks could fish, and Monstrous Nightmares and Night Furies could hunt bears and wildcats. Terrible Terrors eliminated pests in the village. When the dragons stopped raiding, the rats started coming. However, the tiny dragons kept them at a minimum.

Skullette observed the feeding methods before heading off with the other kids. On the way, she stopped and convinced one of the Nadders to let her use it for lessons. Unlike Astrid's Battlespike, this Nadder was not blue but purple. They went into the forest for this, but not close enough to the cave for Andrae to be able to see her once in the air.

The Nadder liked her very much, seeing as she hadn't pulled at its neck because aerial maneuvers freaked her out. The other dragons had quickly crashed. They were going back to the arena now. When they got there, Gobber and his Bonenapper were not what awaited them. Instead, it was Snotlout and his Monstrous Nightmare. The human of the team looked awful, with the beginnings of dark bags under his eyes and almost bloodshot eyes. "Welcome to dragon-back fighting. Fire and I will be teaching you how to do it, and showing which weapons are best to carry on which dragon."

"Excuse me?"

"Yes?"

"Fire is an unimaginative name," said another boy, cutting off the first.

"Who's teaching this lesson? You or me? I can name my dragon whatever I want!"

"Mind yourself Snotlout, you wanted to get back to teaching so you'd better keep your temper," said Gobber from the sidelines. The lesson went fine, with a rapier being for a Night Fury, and a light battle-ax for the Nadder. One of the kids asked if they could use a hammer while riding their Nadder instead of a battle-ax, but Snotlout said that it would be impossible. His temper had flared a little, but he'd remained in control.

Of course, he snapped when one of the kids actually threw his axe. The Monstrous Nightmare it had flown towards barely managed to dodge it. Snotlout's expression was livid as Fire flew to the kid as they all came in for landing. "Explain why you did that please," he said.

"I- I didn't mean to let go. I was daydreaming..."

"You don't daydream while you're on a dragon carrying a weapon! You could have crippled that dragon for life! She never would have been able to fly again!" The boy cowered, and before Snotlout could really get going, Gobber came in with Fishlegs who steered Snotlout out while Gobber gave a speech on safety.

"Skullette?" called a voice that she recognized as her uncle Bob. "What you doing on a Nadder? You got a Night Fury I thought." Everyone stared as she leapt off the Nadder and dashed off. Surprisingly, the Nadder followed her and lifted her onto its back before taking off.

"Why are we here again?" asked Ruffnut.

"To look for Skullette and her Night Fury. Her Dad asked us to."

"After we'd already got looking for her in the first place," pointed out Ruffnut.

"Shut up," said Tuffnut, banging against her with the head he was holding onto. Their Zippleback's heads exchanged a look then rolled their eyes. "Your hair must be suffocating your brain."

"Our hair is the same, idiot."

"No it's not, yours is tied in knots that are pulverizing your brain while suffocating it."

"They're not knots! They're braids!"

"Same thing isn't it? The effect on your brain is the same." Before Ruffnut could try and hurt him, they heard the unmistakable rhythm of a Nadder's flight. Below them and slightly to the side was a Nadder with Skullette on it. "Skullette..." murmured Tuffnut in a slightly dreamy voice.

"Okay, you used to be just an idiot, but now you've sunk to fuzz-brained idiot." Oddly, Tuffnut did not seem to notice this particular insult. "Tuffnut? Are you okay?"

"Yeah..."

"If you're going to try and impress her, I suggest you bathe. You taking a bath would impress anyone," said Ruffnut, grinning.

"Okay thank you for getting me here, but you have to go now. I have my own dragon, and he needs me." The Nadder who Skullette was calling Violet for the moment nuzzled her. "Yes I know he can't fly yet! But I don't want him to get jealous!" Violet seemed to understand, seeing as she nodded and walked off as Skullette climbed to the cave. "I'm back Andraemon! Andrae?" Skullette looked around and finally found that there was a Gronkle terrorizing a green shape. "Toby," she growled. "Out, now." Toby glared at her and plonked himself down more securely.

Violet suddenly flew in and landed, then screamed in Toby's face. The Gronkle fled like it was his mother chasing him. Andrae unfurled and came over to her. Violet hissed, causing Andrae to flinch. Skullette smacked Violet on the nose. "Andrae is my dragon, be nice to him or you'll have to leave. Andrae, this is Violet, she's here to help us until you're large enough to fly."

Andrae growled at Violet, who snorted at him. Skullette sighed and sat down. "I'm going to get a lot of headaches in the next while aren't I?"

One of her headaches was on its way in the form of Tuffnut. The blonde teen was riding on the Zippleback with his sister. "Okay, so if you're going to ask her to go hunting with you, shouldn't you be doing this on your own?"

"You wanted to come," said Tuffnut.

"... either you're dreaming, or you actually think I care about this." Tuffnut glared at her and was about to toss a fishbone at her, but the sparking Zippleback head turned its neck to look at him, making it sort of hard for him to hold on. "Whoa... Your victim has a sweet hideout."

"Victim?"

"Well duh, no one would willingly go somewhere with you."

"You do."

"Because I have to make sure you won't brain yourself with a twig." Ruffnut punched his shoulder lightly. "Now pay attention doofus. You can't stutter, and if she says no it's not that big of a deal, okay? If she agrees, I'll walk home so you have alone time. If something you do causes her to die, she'll be pissed and never talk to you again."

"But how would-?"

"Go!" Ruffnut shoved him off the Zippleback and he walked inside the cave.


	2. Enter: The Flame of No Importance

A week had gone by, and Andrae was now Skullette's size when standing on his hind legs. Violet had seemingly warmed towards him, actually sleeping beside him, but she still didn't like it when Andrae got more attention than her. The reverse was also true, but Andrae showed his jealousy a little more openly by nips and narrowly missed fireballs.

All the while, Skullette had been dealing with the new, unexpected problem of a boy. Tuffnut, to be exact. Like all Vikings, he was stubborn, and Ruffnut had advised turning him down a couple times before accepting. Even though the twins fought a lot and would never admit that they cared for each other, they did. She was snapped out of her thoughts by Tuffnut knocking his knuckles against the stone walls by the cave mouth. "Come on in," she said, yawning.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go-"

"Hunting?"

"Actually, there's a party and I wanted to know if you'd come with me." Skullette blinked.

"A thirteen year old going with a fifteen year old?"

"Yeah, is that okay?" He had his helmet off and everything, looking at her anxiously. She sighed and looked at Violet and Andrae.

"Can you two get along while I'm out?" Both dragons nodded vigorously. "Where am I supposed to meet you?"

"Just here will be fine, I'll come pick you up tomorrow evening."

"Just one thing, you have to hide me if anyone recognizes me. Okay?" Tuffnut nodded.

"I can do that. Hey Skullette?"

"Mmhmm?"

"Thanks."

"Thank yourself and your persistent nature," she replied, grinning.

Violet blinked and crooned encouragingly as Andrae wobbled in the air. Skullette was on Violet's back and was also giving encouragement. "Come on Andrae, it's just a short flight! We'll go back soon." Andrae drifted closer and whined. "Andrae you've become too heavy for Violet to carry unless I got off, and we're pretty high up." Andrae shook his head agitatedly and gestured upwards with his head.

Skullette and Violet looked up. The clouds were occasionally illuminated by bright flashes of purple, and some were moving a little faster than was normal. "Andrae? Violet? What is that?" Instead of trying to reply, they just angled upwards towards the clouds. Skullette held on a little tighter as they went into the clouds. Her eyes were shut, so she had no idea what it looked like. When they broke out of the clouds, Andrae was being held in Violet's claws, for he was exhausted from straining upwards.

They were in what looked like a cloud room, and at the center was a brown dragon she'd never seen before, and a girl. Both looked exhausted, and Skullette felt compelled to invite them to rest in her cave. "Hello? I'm Skullette." They came over faster than she had expected.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. What was that?"

"I said 'Hello, I'm Skullette'. I was wondering if you'd like to rest at my cave? It isn't too far from here and I noticed you looked tired."

"That would be great, thank you. I'm Jacinda, and this is Selena. I assume you're a Viking from Berk? I haven't seen you there."

"I've kinda been trying to protect my Night Fury from my Dad's Gronkle, so I've been living in a cave with Andraemon and Violet." Skullette gave a smile, but her eye was twitching.

"Alright, lead on then."

After they both revealed their histories, there was an awkward silence. "Do you know why Snotlout was so grumpy?" asked Skullette, ducking to avoid a small fireball. "It didn't look like that was his normal state of being." Jacinda shook her head and Skullette leaned a little closer.

"It's not, he's been having nightmares since the dragons nest. From what I saw, he was trying to protect me from something."

"Oh... Is he okay now? And what was he trying to protect you from?" Jacinda shrugged.

"It looked like a shadow with blonde hair, that would be Tasma."

"That chick sounds worse than any electric eel a dragon would try to avoid." Again, she had to duck under fire, but it was from Violet this time. Jacinda caught it and made it into a ball to pass between her hands.

"Soooooo... You know where Tuffnut disappears to?" She raised an eyebrow and kept tossing the fire.

"Promise you won't laugh at him?"

"Only if you don't laugh at Snotlout," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Deal."

Jacinda was easy to follow, mainly because she was going to the village and Skullette knew where that was. Violet was flying her there then flying back to stay with Andrae. After Violet dropped her off, she carefully swiped some food and hid under the table she'd swiped it from. Footsteps approached. "Having fun are we?"

"Jacinda! How did you know...?"

"How about I use this as an excuse to come visit you soon?" As they all grabbed food, Skullette snuck off and grabbed a cloak which she pulled on. The hood was yanked down over her face so her face wouldn't be easily seen. Then she told Gobber that she would like to perform next.

"Fine by me," he said, shrugging. She smiled and walked off. "Weird kid, wearing a cloak in this weather." He flicked a lone snowflake off his shoulder.

Skullette called Hiccup and Astrid down to play their song again. The dance she did was choppy and fluid at the same time, going with the beat of the drum and the flow of the flute. Doing this dance, she went over to the wall and grabbed two hoops. A couple of people stared incredulously as she used the hoops while dancing, moving her body so the hoops rotated around her.

Tossing them up into the air, she ran up the ledges, grabbed Tuffnut, and dragged him down in time to catch the hoops. She continued dancing as she did a 'come on' gesture. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Dance, idiot."

"Skullette?"

"Who else? Get moving!" She had to admit, his form of freestyling was... interesting. When he actually started dancing, it involved a lot of leg and arm movement in random directions. And all the movements are jerky.

Skullette was dragged out of the torchlight by Tuffnut as soon as the performance was over. "Why the Hell are you here?"

"You aren't happy to see me?"

"No no no, that's not it! I thought you didn't want to be recognized."

"I've got a hood don't I?"

"But what if it somehow falls off?"

"Well then I outrun the adults."

"What about the teens?"

"You're smart, you'll figure out a way to delay them until I'm well away." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and skipped off.

"Someone loves YOU?" asked Ruffnut, looking incredulous. Tuffnut was too busy staring after Skullette to register what she had said. When they went back to the others and grabbed a bite to eat (food had been brought up in the stands now), Tuffnut was muttering about crazy females. "Great dancing. You almost passed as a human being," said Ruffnut, elbowing him.

"By sitting still, you failed to."

Skullette watched Ruffnut go at it with her brother and grinned. "I feel it's only fair to warn you, Tuffnut is not the best with relationships, as demonstrated with his sister." Skullette looked at Bob, who was being unusually perceptive. "And I suggest you don't let your father know until you're well into the relationship and you've officially come back."

"Thanks for the advice Uncle Bob," she clasped his hand and smiled at him.

"No problem, just don't use me for a sled when the snow is properly here." Skullette laughed and assured him that she never had and never would. She'd find some other guy named Bob to sled with.

Her cloak billowed in a cliche manner as she strode towards the village boundaries. Reaching them however, she paused and clenched and unclenched her right hand. She felt cold, but her hand was warm. She brought it up to cradle close to herself, when she paused. A small bottle green flame flickered in her hand, and yet it did not burn her. Her mouth made an 'o' shape as she realized why the fireball that had accidentally hit her hand hadn't hurt as much as she had expected it to.

Instead of leaving, she snuffed the flame out and turned around. "Vikings face their fears," she muttered, heading towards the arena to watch the last few performances before the actual feast. "And Vikings overeat as well. Note to self: Keep food intake to a minimum, or burn it off with exercise." Locating Tuffnut, she set off towards him, pushing her way through the socializing Vikings. When she reached the group, she took a fistful of Tuffnut's hair and dragged him off his sister.

"I'm hurt! I am very much hur-"

"Oh suck it up, whiner." He stared at her.

"What are you doing?"

"Well if I'm going to be at the party tomorrow, I thought I could meet a couple of the other attendees." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Skullette, and I have a green Night Fury. Tuffnut here is the nuisance who's constantly pestering me about the need to socialize."

"Well it's nice to meet you Skullette. I'm Hiccup."

"Nice to meet you. I did know who you were, but I'd never actually talked to you before now. But that's pretty obvious isn't it?" Next up was Hiccup's giiiiirlfriend, as Tuffnut said before being whacked by Astrid.

"I'm Astrid."

"Pleased to meet you."

"And I'm Fishlegs!"

"The nerdy kid who can give you any info you want on a dragon?"

"You got that right," said Ruffnut, smirking.

"So, Skullette. What sorts of things do you like to do?"

"Read." Ruffnut dragged Tuffnut off a short distance.

"Your girlfriend is a bookworm?"

"She's not my girlfriend!"

"Yet. You initiated the acquaintance, not me."

When Jacinda and Snotlout came back, Skullette hugged Jacinda, then looked at Snotlout critically. "You know, Snotlout, if I wasn't interested in Tuffnut and Jacinda wasn't interested in you, I would be stalking you in all probability." Jacinda's eye twitched.

"Snotlout, please move out of the line of fire."

"Why do you-?"

"Like this," she said, pushing him to the sidelines. "Skullette, you crossed a very serious line."

"Jacinda, I was joking."

"You saying he isn't hot?"

"No, I'm just saying I wouldn't go after him."

"Good." Skullette suddenly noticed that branches had been creeping towards her through that conversation, but now they went back to their original positions.

"You sayin' I'm hot, babe?" Snotlout asked Jacinda, one eyebrow raised. Jacinda looked at him, then meaningfully at the nearest rock, then snorted and turned to Astrid.

"Do you ever have this much trouble with Hiccup?"

"Well he doesn't stutter much anymore, so no I can't say I do. But I can sympathize with you." Snotlout scrambled around in front of them.

"W-W-W-W-W-Wait! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hush," said Jacinda, pushing him again. In the mean time, Skullette had been sitting and running her fingers over the skull and crossbones over her palm. She tried to rub it off, but it did nothing to even smudge it. She decided to try calling a flame again, and the green flame was once again in her hand.

"Tuffnut?" She extinguished it. "Tuffnut can I show you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Yeah, what?" asked Ruffnut.

"Watch this." They stared, dumbfounded as the flame appeared in her hand. "And I can make it harmless, or have it burn things! Can you believe it?"

"I don't know..." said Tuffnut, still entirely shocked, and thinking that his girlfriend could make fire. _Fire_! The thought was a little overwhelming, and when he grew accustomed to it, he would probably brag.

"What's going on?" asked Hiccup. "Wait, is that...?"

"That's a small green fire in my unburned hand, yes." Hiccup, for some reason or other, fainted.


End file.
